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PT · Portugal · –

Vila Pouca de Aguiar fire, 2 September 2016 Telões, Alvadia, Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã

Out · last detection 7 Sept 2016, 13:54 UTC

The fire started on 2 September 2016 in Telões, Portugal, and satellites saw it burning for 6 days. Copernicus mapped a burnt perimeter of 866 hectares from satellite imagery, spread across 4 freguesias. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 5 September 2016 at 10:48 and declared extinguished on 8 September 2016.

It is the 6th largest in Vila Pouca de Aguiar since 2016 (of 10 with a page). Number 38 in Portugal in 2016, of 180.

Burnt area
866ha
Copernicus perimeter
Duration
6days
2 Sept 2016 – 7 Sept 2016
Freguesias hit
4
freguesias
Started on
2 Sept
2016
Heat detections
38
in a single hotspot: 123 MW
Danger at start
26
High · FWI index
Average daily power
618MW
detected power per day, on average

Where it burned

HOTSPOTS BY DAY 2 Sept7 Sept
7 Sept 2016

How it evolved, day by day

6 Sept 2016 · 1,081 MW · 22 7 Sept 2016 · 156 MW · 16
6 Sept 7 Sept

Fire radiative power detected each day, in megawatts, and number of hotspots. The magenta bar marks the peak day.

The weather it burned in

33°high
49km/h · peak gust
22%lowest humidity

It had gone 6 days without rain (1 mm or more) when it started. Rain came after the fire: 23.2 mm on 13 Sept.

This area had burned before

No earlier perimeters overlap this fire since 2016, when the satellite record begins.

How big is it?

10 km
It burned the equivalent of 0.5% of the area of London (8.7 km² against 1,583 km²).

London boundary: geoBoundaries · Office for National Statistics (Open Government Licence v3.0).

This compares size, not location: both shapes are at the same scale, north up, centred on each other.

What happened to each freguesia

  1. Telões 1.4 km from the centre where it started
    762 ha reached on 6 Sept
    17 %
  2. Alvadia 165 inhabitants · 4.3 km from the centre
    100 ha reached on 6 Sept
    3.0 %
  3. Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã 2,658 inhabitants · 3.9 km from the centre
    4 ha
    0.1 %
  4. Alvão 774 inhabitants · 4.8 km from the centre
    1 ha
    0.0 %

Burnt area inside each freguesia, from crossing the official perimeter with administrative boundaries. The distance runs from the point marking the centre of each area to the nearest fire: staying a kilometre away does not mean it reached the houses.

What burned

  • Other natural land56 %
  • Scrub and transitional woodland30 %
  • Agricultural areas14 %

Natura 2000 protected area affected: 100 %

Natura 2000 sites (European Environment Agency, 2024 release) crossed by the perimeter.

Land cover inside the perimeter according to Corine Land Cover, as reported by Copernicus.

Official record

Complex of 2 fires according to ICNF

According to ICNF, 2 fires started inside this perimeter on these dates, totalling 890 ha (the satellite measured 866 ha).

ICNF records each fire that started at a different time or place separately; the satellite sees a single burned area, so this page groups them together. The numbers on the map show where each one started.

When each one burned

1 10 ha 2 880 ha
29 Aug8 Sept
arson negligence
  1. 1 Vila Pouca de Aguiar Telões 29 August 2016 · 10:56 10 ha · extinguished on 29 August 2016 · cause: arson
  2. 2 Vila Pouca de Aguiar Telões 5 September 2016 · 10:48 880 ha · extinguished on 8 September 2016 · cause: negligence

Total according to ICNF: 890 ha, 103 % of the 866 ha in the satellite perimeter.

ICNF (Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas). This is the agency’s operational record: its figures may be revised when the year’s statistics are closed.

The weather day by day

ECMWF ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, the standard reference for past weather, and the Canadian Fire Weather Index (the same system Copernicus uses), computed by WorldFires from that data. Days after the fire run until the first rain.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

Day High Min. humidity Peak gust Rain Danger (FWI)
2 Sept 29.3 °C 33 % 29 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
3 Sept 29.5 °C 30 % 27 km/h 0.2 mm High 28
4 Sept 29.4 °C 29 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 35
5 Sept 30.5 °C 29 % 21 km/h 0.0 mm High 29
6 Sept 32.7 °C 22 % 49 km/h 0.0 mm High 37
7 Sept 28.4 °C 34 % 40 km/h 0.0 mm High 36
8 Sept after 23.5 °C 41 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 26
9 Sept after 23.9 °C 35 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 25
10 Sept after 23.7 °C 48 % 36 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
11 Sept after 25.7 °C 44 % 30 km/h 0.0 mm High 24
12 Sept after 26.4 °C 40 % 49 km/h 0.1 mm High 31
13 Sept after 17.4 °C 56 % 53 km/h 23.2 mm Very low 3

Its twins: fires that started in the same weather

It started with an FWI of 26.1, a minimum humidity of 33% and 6 days without rain. Fires in the area that started in weather like this since 2016: 37.

FWI at the start 26.1
Minimum humidity 33 %
Days without rain 6
this fire chosen twins rest of the area
Almost identicalSimilar

Outlines of the closest twins

Monterrei fire, July 2020
729 ha 4 days FWI 26.6 Min. humidity 32 % 57 km away, in 2020

First rain (1 mm or more) after it ended: none in the following ten days.

What happened to them

2 days
median duration
241 ha
median area
16 %
went past 1,000 ha
4.6 mm
rain at the end (median; 22 of 37 had it)

It was 3.6 times larger than the median of its twins and lasted 6 days, against 2 days.

Only 7 of its 37 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 15 of 37, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.6 mm.

This is a bank of analogues: it shows what usually happens, not what will happen. With fewer than 15 twins we give no figures. How we calculate it

How it ended

23.2 mmfirst rain
13 Sept6 days after it ended
49km/h · max. gust

It was considered over on 7 Sept, and on 13 Sept 23.2 mm fell. We do not know whether the rain or the firefighters put it out. Twins with rain when they ended: 22 of 37, with a median of 4.6 mm.

Weather on this page: Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Climate Change Service (ERA5)

How a twin is chosen

  • Same area: fires that have already ended, less than 250 km from this one, since 2016.
  • Same start: we compare the FWI on the first day, the minimum humidity that day and the run of days without rain before it. The slider sets how much they may differ.
  • Only pages with final weather data (ERA5 reanalysis) calculated in the same way as this fire’s; agricultural and grass burns and pages with data under review are left out.
  • Fires burning at the same time as this one (a week before or after) are left out: they share the same spell of weather and do not count as a precedent.
  • They are sorted by similarity, and the outlines of the first five are drawn.

How we calculate it

Before and after, from space

Drag the line to compare the same ground before the fire and after it.

Before · 26 Aug 2016
After · 14 Sept 2016

If the day is cloudy, change the date: each satellite passes once a day. In false colour the burnt ground looks brown or red.

The smoke

CAMS · Copernicus

On 7 September 2016 the air beside the fire reached 180 µg/m³ of PM2.5. That day averaged 60: 4.0 times the WHO daily guideline (15).

PM2.5 peak180 µg/m³
Days over the guideline6 days
PM10219 µg/m³
3 Sept5 Sept7 Sept9 Sept
Good Fair Moderate Poor Very poor Extremely poor

Particles from the Copernicus CAMS model at the centre of the perimeter; these are not measurements in each town. The pale bar is the worst hour, the solid one the daily average.

Open-Meteo.com (CC BY 4.0) · Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS)

Detections table · 38Every satellite heat detection, one by one, with time, satellite, power and coordinates.
⬇ Download CSV Times in UTC. Each detection is a 375 m pixel: a large fire yields hundreds per pass.
Date and timeSatelliteFRP (MW)LatLon

Other fires nearby

All fires in Portugal

Frequently asked questions

How long did the Vila Pouca de Aguiar fire last?
According to the heat detections seen by satellite inside the perimeter, it burned from 2 September 2016 to 7 September 2016 (6 days). The perimeter dates it from 5 September 2016 to 7 September 2016. According to ICNF, the largest of the 2 recorded fires was detected on 5 September 2016 at 10:48 and declared extinguished on 8 September 2016.
How much area did it burn?
The perimeter Copernicus measured from satellite imagery is 866 hectares (8.7 km²). Official national figures may differ.
Which freguesias burned?
The fire entered 4 freguesias: Telões (762 ha, 17 %); Alvadia (100 ha, 3.0 %); Adoufe e Vilarinho de Samardã (4 ha, 0.1 %); Alvão (1 ha, 0.0 %).
Did the fire reach a town?
The fire started in Telões and came within 1.4 km of its centre. That is the distance from the perimeter, or the nearest hotspot, to the point marking the centre; it does not mean it entered the houses.
What was the weather like?
During the fire the temperature reached 32.7 °C, humidity dropped to 22 % and gusts hit 49 km/h. The fire danger index (FWI) reached 37, class High.
Where does this data come from?
From the EFFIS (Copernicus) burnt perimeter, NASA FIRMS VIIRS hotspots and the administrative boundaries of Portugal (geoBoundaries). It is not an official report.
How did the fires that started in similar weather in this area end?
Fires less than 250 km away that started since 2016 with a similar FWI, humidity and dry spell: 37. Their median duration was 2 days and their median area 241 ha; 16 % went past 1,000 ha. Only 7 of its 37 twins burned more. The weather on the first day does not explain everything: the wind in the following days, the fuel and the firefighting also count. In 15 of 37, not even 1 mm fell in the ten days after the end: they went out without rain. In the rest, the first rainy day brought a median of 4.6 mm.

Where to verify it

A satellite detection is not an official report. Final figures and the fire’s status are published by each country’s emergency service.

Emergency number: 112 · Emergency number and official warnings

Satellite cross-check

History of this page Changes in area, dates, name, official record or merged pages, compared every night since 24 October 2026.

Does something look wrong on this page?

This page is built from satellite data and official records, and it sometimes gets things wrong: the wrong dates, the wrong town, two fires merged into one, or something that was not a wildfire at all. If you know this fire first-hand (you live nearby, saw it, fought it or reported on it), tell us what really happened and we will check it.

Report an error
What do you think is wrong?

We will only use your email to reply about this report. Privacy. This is not an emergency service: if there is a fire now, call 112.

How we know this
  • Perimeter: EFFIS (Copernicus), mapped on satellite imagery.
  • Dates adjusted with the VIIRS detections inside the perimeter, which said 5 September 2016 to 7 September 2016. 38 Suomi-NPP VIIRS detections on those dates.
  • Compared with ICNF: 890 official ha against 866 ha of perimeter; they agree within 25%.
  • Weather: Copernicus ERA5 reanalysis at the fire location, in cells of about 25 km.

How we build fire pages: methodology

Where this data comes from

The perimeter and land cover come from the Copernicus European Forest Fire Information System (EFFIS), measured on MODIS and Sentinel-2 imagery and published under CC BY 4.0. Heat detections come from the VIIRS sensors aboard Suomi-NPP and NOAA-20, distributed by NASA FIRMS at 375 m resolution. Freguesia boundaries come from geoBoundaries ADM3 (CC0 1.0 Universal (CC0 1.0) Public Domain Dedication). The area per freguesia is computed by WorldFires by crossing the perimeter with those boundaries, so it may differ slightly from each country’s official figure.